Let’s face it, May has been full of controversy. This past month has been so dominated by headlines regarding Kneecap’s undying support for the people of Palestine and locals debating the future of South London festival hotspot Brockwell Park that it’s easy to miss all the great music that’s been released. Luckily, we’ve got you covered.

In particular, the Dazed office has been awash with the dreamy soundscapes of Dutch pop-R&B artist Erika de Casier’s fourth album Lifetime. Adorning ethereal hip-hop-adjacent dreampop production with lyrics about taking life easy and not beating yourself up, Lifetime offers an uplifting soundtrack that is matched by singles from Norwegian duo Smerz, London wordsmith Jianbo and German guitar savant RIP Swirl this month.

Elsewhere, Fakemink has teamed up with Drain Gang veterans Mechatok and Ecco2k on the spectacular cloud rap track “MAKKA”, reminding everyone why he is one of the biggest names on the UK underground scene today (shout out Mink’s adlibs, which are entirely nonsensical, off-beat and out-of-tune, but still somehow work perfectly). Thanks to Mechatok’s incredibly catchy lead guitar melody, “MAKKA” is a slightly less digital sound than Fakemink is used to but, fear not, because new releases from Jane Remover and kuru have all the digicore you could ask for. 

Finally, Kiwi pop icon Lorde continues her soul-searching Virgin album campaign with new track “Man of the Year”, which delves deeper into her recent explorations of gender identity. Meanwhile, UK rap star AJ Tracey reunites with nascent grime crew MTP for new single “Paid in Full”, lifted off his upcoming album Don’t Die Before You’re Dead. Read our interview with Big Zuu and AJ Tracey here.

Although we post these round-ups at the end of every month, we update the playlist regularly for our subscribers – so be sure to follow us on Spotify to keep up to date.